Timeline

The Timeline editor, identified by a clock icon, is used for manipulating keyframes and scrubbing the Playhead.

The Timeline.

The Timeline gives the user a broad overview of a scene’s animation, by showing the current frame, the keyframes of the active object, the start and end frames of your animation sequence, as well as markers set by the user.

The Timeline includes Transport Controls, to play, pause, and skip through an animation sequence.

It also includes tools for manipulating Keyframes, Keying Sets, and Markers.

Main View

The main Timeline region displays the animation frames over time.

Here you can see the Keyframes (diamond shapes), Playhead (blue handle), Scrollbar (along the bottom).

Adjusting the View

The Timeline can be panned by holding MMB, then dragging the area left or right.

You can zoom the Timeline by using Ctrl-MMB, the mouse Wheel, or pressing NumpadMinus and NumpadPlus.

You can also use the scrollbars, located at the bottom or the right of the editor, to pan and zoom the view.

Playhead

The Playhead is the blue vertical line with the current frame number at the top.

Playhead.

The Playhead can be set or moved to a new position by pressing or holding LMB in scrubbing area at the top of the timeline.

The Playhead can be moved in single-frame increments by pressing Left or Right, or you can jump to the beginning or end frame by pressing Shift-Left or Shift-Right.

Frame Range

By default, the Frame Range is set to start at frame 1 and end at frame 250. You can change the frame range in the top right of the Timeline header, or in the Output Properties.

Keyframes

For the active and selected objects, keyframes are displayed as diamond shapes.

You can click to select one at a time, or select several by holding Shift, or by dragging a box around the keyframes. You can then move single keys by dragging them, and you can move multiple keys by pressing G and scale them with S.

Only Selected Channels can be enabled. Timeline ‣ View ‣ Only Selected Channels. For Armatures, this will display the object keyframes, and the keyframes for the active and selected pose bones.

Markers

See the Markers page for more information.

Header

Popovers

Playback Popover

The Playback popover contains options controlling the animation playback.

Sync

3D Viewport red FPS.

When you play an animation, the frame rate is displayed at the top left of the 3D Viewport. If the scene is detailed and playback is slower than the set Frame Rate, these options are used to synchronize the playback.

• Play Every Frame

  Plays every frame even if playback is slow.

  Frame Dropping

  Drop frames if playback becomes slower than the scene’s frame rate.

  Sync to Audio

  Drop frames if playback becomes too slow to remain synced with audio.

Audio

• Scrubbing

  If your animation has sound, this option plays bits of the sound wave while you move the Playhead with LMB or keyboard arrows.

  Mute

  Mute the sound from any audio source.

Playback

• Limit Playback to Frame Range

  Don’t allow selecting frames outside of the playback range using the mouse.

• Follow Current Frame

  Animation editors can be setup to always follow the time indicator as animation is being played back. Following will be done when animating and changing frame: When the cursor reaches the end of the screen, the next range of frames of the same width will be displayed.

Play In

• Active Editor

  While playing, updates the Timeline, if Animation Editors and All 3D Viewports disabled.

  3D Viewport

  While playing, updates the 3D Viewport and the Timeline.

  Animation Editors

  While playing, updates the Timeline, Dope Sheet, Graph Editor, Video Sequencer.

  Image Editor

  The Image editor in Mask mode.

  Properties Editor

  When the animation is playing, this will update the property values in the UI.

  Movie Clip Editor

  While playing, updates the Movie Clip Editor.

  Node Editors

  While playing, updates the Node properties for the node editors.

  Video Sequencer

  While playing, updates the Video Sequencer.

Show

• Subframes

  Display and allow changing the current scene subframe.

Keying Popover

The Keying popover contains options that affect keyframe insertion.

Active Keying Set

Timeline Keying Sets.

Keying Sets are a set of keyframe channels in one. They are made so the user can record multiple properties at the same time. With a keying set selected, when you insert a keyframe, Blender will add keyframes for the properties in the active Keying Set. There are some built-in keying sets, LocRotScale, and also custom keying sets. Custom keying sets can be created in the Keying Set panel.

• Insert Keyframes (plus icon)

  Insert keyframes on the current frame for the properties in the active Keying Set.

  Delete Keyframes (minus icon)

  Delete keyframes on the current frame for the properties in the active Keying Set.

New Keyframe Type

Keyframe Types on insertion.

Cycle-Aware Keying

When inserting keyframes into trivially cyclic curves, special handling is applied to preserve the cycle integrity (most useful while tweaking an established cycle):

• If a key insertion is attempted outside of the main time range of the cycle, it is remapped back inside the range.

• When overwriting one of the end keys, the other one is updated accordingly.

In addition, when adding a new curve into an action with a Manual Frame Range and Cyclic Animation enabled, the curve is automatically made cyclic with the period matching the frame range. For convenience this check and conversion is also done before adding the second keyframe to such a curve.

Auto Keying Popover

Timeline Auto Keyframe.

The record button (⏺) enables Auto Keyframe: It will add and/or replace existing keyframes for the active object when you transform it in the 3D Viewport. For example, when enabled, first set the Playhead to the desired frame, then move an object in the 3D Viewport, or set a new value for a property in the UI.

When you set a new value for the properties, Blender will add keyframes on the current frame for the transform properties. Other use cases are Fly/Walk Navigation to record the walk/flight path and Lock Camera to View to record the navigation in camera view.

Note

Note that Auto Keyframe only works for transform properties (objects and bones), in the 3D Viewport (i.e. you can’t use it e.g. to animate the colors of a material in the Properties…).

Mode

This controls how the auto keyframe mode works. Only one mode can be used at a time.

• Add & Replace:

  Add or replace existing keyframes.

  Replace:

  Only replace existing keyframes.

Only Active Keying Set

When enabled, new keyframes for properties will be inserted into the active Keying Set.

Layered Recording

Adds a new NLA Track and strip for every loop/pass made over the animation to allow non-destructive tweaking.

Menus

View Menu

The View Menu controls what you see, and what it looks like.

Adjust Last Operation

Displays a pop-up panel to alter properties of the last completed operation. See Adjust Last Operation.

Channels

Show or hide the Channels Region.

Frame All Home

Maximize the area based on the Animation Range.

Go to Current Frame Numpad0

Centers the Timeline to the Playhead.

Show Markers

Shows the markers region. When disabled, the Markers Menu is also hidden and markers operators are not available in this editor.

Show Seconds Ctrl-T

Whether to show the time in the X axis and the Playhead as frames (based on the FPS) or as seconds.

Sync Visible Range

It synchronizes the horizontal panning and scale of the current editor with the other editors (Graph, Dope Sheet, NLA, and Sequencer) when this option is set. That way you always have these editors showing the same section of frames.

Only Show Selected

Only include keyframes related to the selected item this item could be sequencer strips, nodes, objects, or any other type of data.

Only Show Errors

Only include curves and drivers that are disabled or have errors. Useful for debugging.

Cache

• Show Cache

  Show all enabled types.

  Baked simulations will be shown as fully opaque, cached simulations will be slightly transparent, and invalid caches will be slightly transparent with dark diagonal stripes.

  Soft Body, Particles, Cloth, Simulation Nodes, Smoke, Dynamic Paint, Rigid Body.

Timeline Cache.

Area

Area controls, see the user interface documentation for more information.

Markers Menu

Markers are used to denote frames with key points or significant events within an animation. Like with most animation editors, markers are shown at the bottom of the editor.

Markers in animation editor.

For descriptions of the different marker tools see Editing Markers.

Header Controls

The Timeline header controls.

Timeline header controls.

1. Popovers for Playback and Keying, 2. Transport Controls, 3. Frame Controls

Transport Controls

These buttons are used to set, play, rewind, the Playhead.

Transport controls.

Jump to Start (❙⏴) Shift-Left

This sets the cursor to the start of frame range.

Jump to Previous Keyframe (◆⏴) Down

This sets the cursor to the previous keyframe.

Rewind (◀) Shift-Ctrl-Spacebar

This plays the animation sequence in reverse. When playing the play buttons switch to a pause button.

Play (▶) Spacebar

This plays the animation sequence. When playing the play buttons switch to a pause button.

Jump to Next Keyframe (⏵◆) Up

This sets the cursor to the next keyframe.

Jump to End (⏵❙) Shift-Right

This sets the cursor to the end of frame range.

Pause (⏸) Spacebar

This stops the animation.

Frame Controls

Current Frame Alt-Wheel

The current frame of the animation/playback range. Also the position of the Playhead.

Preview Range (clock icon)

This is a temporary frame range used for previewing a smaller part of the full range. The preview range only affects the viewport, not the rendered output. See Set Preview Range P.

Start Frame

The start frame of the animation/playback range.

End Frame

The end frame of the animation/playback range.